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They Kind of Knew It Wouldn’t Work

It was the morning after the Florida presidential primary, and in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the Barrioses were disagreeing.

Sitting at the front counter in the Barrios Auto Driving School on Fifth Avenue, Joseph Barrios called Rudolph W. Giuliani’s loss in the Republican contest “a shock.” He said he was surprised to open the paper and read that Mr. Giuliani would soon drop out of the race.

Mr. Barrios didn’t think Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had a chance. But what seemed to puzzle him was the idea that Mr. Giuliani would walk away from the campaign after so many months of speech-making, hand-shaking, baby-kissing and fund-raising.

Some New Yorkers asked that question on Wednesday as they pored over the totals from Florida, where Mr. Giuliani ran a distant third behind Senator John McCain and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Some expressed relief — others, delight — that Mr. Giuliani’s campaign had imploded so rapidly.

Some questioned his strategic calculations. Why, they wondered, did he concentrate on Florida’s winner-take-all primary and skip states where early contests had given Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney momentum, a potentially more important prize at this early stage?

Photo

"He was draconian as a prosecutor and as a mayor, says Robert Cantor, a former prosecutor in the Bronx.Credit
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Some talked about the difficulty of transferring his hard-edged urban personality to a wider stage. Some talked about his personal life. Some echoed Dorothy Kaliades, a retired jewelry designer who was having her nails done in Howard Beach, Queens. She said she had never believed that Mr. Giuliani had a real chance nationally.

“He was too New York, too Italian, and he had too many wives,” she said.

But what about the buzz he generated at campaign stops around the country, at least in the beginning?

“No,” Ms. Kaliades said, “this is where the buzz is. I love Giuliani, but he’s not presidential.”

Not presidential?

“This is a man who wants to represent America,” she said, “and his kids won’t talk to him. That’s not a good thing.”

Richard Martin, 58, a former cabdriver who lives in Harlem, called Mr. Giuliani’s defeat in Florida “a blessing.”

“I have been asking myself, how could Giuliani ever have the audacity to run for president,” said Mr. Martin, who is black. “His governing style would be considered mean, indifferent and, I would have to say, racist or prejudiced.”

Photo

If you dont like New Yorkers, youre not going
to like Giuliani. You dont get much more
New York than him, says John Quirk, a bartender near Yankee Stadium.Credit
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Jessica Matos, 25, a single mother from the South Bronx, sounded almost giddy as she talked about the results from Florida and the possibility that Mr. Giuliani would abandon his campaign.

“I was waiting for this moment — he stinks,” declared Ms. Matos as she finished off the last of her French fries at the Crown Donuts Diner on East 161st Street, not far from Yankee Stadium. “Giuliani was always for himself, never for the people. Where I live, a lot of people need help, and he made everything hard for people who needed help. Everything was always for the middle class or the high class. He just forgot about everyone else.”

Across the table, her friend Ivonne Rivera, 38, nodded enthusiastically. “He’s a hypocrite,” she said.

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The diner’s owner, Peter Katsihtis, took a more analytical approach. A Republican who plans to vote for a Democrat in November because he wants the United States out of Iraq, Mr. Katsihtis said Mr. Giuliani had not managed to get his message and positions across. “When people decide to vote,” he said, “they want to know what a candidate stands for. He wasn’t effective in getting that across.”

Louis Duran, an elevator mechanic’s assistant seated at a booth by the window, spoke up for Mr. Giuliani.

“I used to be a criminal — I’ve spent time upstate — and I don’t hate Giuliani,” he said. “I thought he did a great job as mayor. I want my parents and family to be safe, and I would have voted for him.”

Photo

Where I live, a lot of people need help,
and he made everything hard for
people who needed help, says Jessica Matos, a single mother from the South Bronx.Credit
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

John Quirk, a bartender at the Yankee Tavern across the street, looked at the row of men from a road construction crew having beers with their lunches and said he was disappointed by Mr. Giuliani’s defeat.

“The guy did a lot for the city,” Mr. Quirk said. “Probably there was just too much stuff going on in his personal life. And nationally, people just didn’t like him. If you don’t like New Yorkers, you’re not going to like Giuliani. You don’t get much more New York than him.”

Damon Brown, 31, an assistant in a restaurant kitchen who was standing outside the State Office Building in Harlem, said Mr. Giuliani had not run a full-fledged campaign. “I don’t think Giuliani really wanted to be president,” said Mr. Brown, who was not enrolled in either party and said he had not decided who will get his vote in November. “I think he’s tired. I think he wants to retire.”

Eduardo Sanchez, 34, a project manager at an insurance company who is a Democrat, said he had expected Mr. Giuliani’s defeat, adding he had created logistical problems for himself.

“He wasn’t doing much in terms of preparing in Iowa or New Hampshire,” said Mr. Sanchez, who was walking on the Upper East Side. “He didn’t do a lot of the groundwork, so I think now he can do the support work for McCain.”

Robert Cantor, a former prosecutor in the Bronx who is now in private practice, focused on Mr. Giuliani’s record and the way he had handled himself in the jobs he had held.

“He was draconian as a prosecutor and as a mayor,” Mr. Cantor said as he smoked a cigarette on the steps of the Bronx County Courthouse. “It’s a good thing Floridians did what they did.”